Gaming device manufacturers strive to make wagering gaming devices that provide as much enjoyment, entertainment and excitement as possible for players. Providing interesting and exciting primary or base games and secondary or bonus games in which a player has an opportunity to win potentially large awards or credits is one way to enhance player enjoyment and excitement. Another way to enhance a player's enjoyment, entertainment and excitement with a gaming device is by including lights, sounds and other visual or audio or audio-visual effects in the gaming machines.
Certain known gaming devices use mechanical devices such as reels, wheels or spheres to enhance the attraction of the machines to players and also to enhance the player's game playing experience. These mechanical devices enable a player to see physical movements of a game, a portion of a game, or a functional game event or element which increases the player's enjoyment of the game.
Certain of such gaming machines or devices provide games wherein a player has one or more opportunities to obtain a winning symbol combination on a set of mechanical or video reels. These gaming devices generate and display a plurality of symbols at a plurality of symbol positions and any awards are provided based on the symbols or combinations of symbols generated.
In one slot gaming device with a plurality of paylines, the player initiates the spinning of the reels by making one or more wagers on one or more paylines. Such gaming devices may have one, three, five, nine, fifteen, twenty-five or any other suitable number of paylines which are horizontal, vertical, diagonal or any combination thereof. The player wagers on a player selected number or combination of paylines, such as one, two, three, five, ten or fifteen paylines. One type of gaming device includes a payline associated with each possible combination of symbol positions, wherein each payline passes through only one symbol position on each reel.
In these gaming devices, the awards provided to the player are generally based on the number of paylines that pass through each of the winning symbol combinations. That is, the gaming device separately analyzes each wagered on payline to determine if a winning symbol combination is generated on that payline. For each occurrence of each payline passing through a winning symbol combination, the gaming device provides the player the award associated with that winning symbol combination. For example, in a five reel gaming device, if four related symbols (which form a winning symbol combination) are generated by the first four reels and twelve paylines pass through at least three of those related symbols (i.e., three paylines pass through all four related symbols and nine paylines pass through the first three related symbols), the gaming device provides the player twelve awards (i.e., one award for each payline that passes through the winning symbol combination). This is all for the one occurrence of the winning symbol combination including the four related symbols. Accordingly, in a gaming device with wagering on paylines, the greater the number of wagered on paylines that pass through a winning symbol combination, the greater the award as compared to an identical winning symbol combination in which fewer wagered on paylines pass through the same winning symbol combination.
In another known type of gaming device with reels, the player wagers on a number of ways to win, wherein any award provided to the player is based on the number of associated symbols which are generated in active symbol positions on a requisite number of adjacent reels. That is, in these way to win gaming devices, any awards provided to the player are not based on any paylines that would have passed through the generated winning symbol combination, but rather determined in an alternative manner as described in more detail below.
It should be appreciated that one problem with a ways to win gaming device relates to the wagering structure and the associated payouts. As described below, the manner in which the payouts and wins are structured in a ways to win gaming device results in the costs associated with wagering on a way to win being different than the costs associated with wagering on a standard payline. For example, in a gaming device with paylines, the player generally bets or wagers one credit per payline in which they desire to be active. In a ways to win gaming device, one wagered credit correlates to the player wagering on more than one way to win, wherein the credits wagered-to-ways to win ratios are usually not of a linear relationship for every wagering possibility. It should be appreciated that since these ratios are not equal for every possibility, problems arise with the wagering scheme of ways to win gaming device. For example, the following betting chart illustrates the credits wagered-to-ways to win ratios for 3×3 reel ways to win gaming device.
CreditsWaysWagerto Win132639412515618727
As illustrated above, the credits wagered-to-ways to win ratio is not the same for one credit wagered as it is for seven credits wagered. In this example, a player who wagered one credit purchased three times the number of ways to win of what the wager cost. Additionally, a player who wagered 7 credits purchased 3.857 times the number of ways to win of what the wager cost. This non-linear relationship between credits wagered and purchased ways to win leads to an additional problem with the better scheme of a ways to win gaming device. This additional problem deals directly with the probability of occurrence for the symbols/symbol combinations as related to their expected payouts.
For example, a ways to win gaming device employing the above wagering scheme may be associated with the following paytable:
CombinationPayoutTwo Cherry1SymbolsThree Cherry2SymbolsTwo Money1Bag SymbolsThree Money3Bag SymbolsTwo Orange1SymbolsThree Orange4SymbolsTwo Seven2SymbolsThree Seven5SymbolsTwo Bar2SymbolsThree Bar6Symbolswherein the reels are laid out with the following format:
Reel 1, SymbolReel 2, SymbolReel 3, SymbolPosition APosition APosition AReel 1, SymbolReel 2, SymbolReel 3, SymbolPosition BPosition BPosition BReel 1, SymbolReel 2, SymbolReel 3, SymbolPosition CPosition CPosition Cand the reels have the following symbol layout:
Reel 1Reel 2Reel 3Cherry475SymbolMoney Bag455SymbolOrange353SymbolSeven424SymbolBar Symbol513TOTAL202020Accordingly, the above configuration would yield an expected payout of:
CombinationHitsPayoutExp. PayoutTwo Cherry Symbols4201420Three Cherry1402280SymbolsTwo Money Bag3001300SymbolsThree Money Bag1003300SymbolsTwo Orange Symbols2551255Three Orange454180SymbolsTwo Seven Symbols1282256Three Seven325160SymbolsTwo Bar Symbols852170Three Bar Symbols15690Expected Payout2411Total Combinations8000Payout Percentage30.1375Utilizing the above-described betting chart, the average expected payout percentages ((payout percentage*ways to win purchased)/credit wagered) are as follows:
WagerWaysAEP1390.41252690.41253990.412541290.412551590.412561890.4125727116.2446
As illustrated above, a wager of seven credits has a substantially different average expected payout percentage (e.g., 116.2446%) than the average expected payout percentage associated with the other wager amounts (e.g., 90.4125%) due to the non-linear betting scheme of a ways to win gaming device.
Another known gaming device includes one or more concentric reels wherein each reel is includes an inner and outer reels and each inner reel is capable of generating one or more symbols while each outer reel is capable of generating one or more symbols or viewable areas. These concentric reels exit as physical reels, such as mechanical or electro-mechanical reels.
Accordingly, a need exists to produce a ways to win gaming device wherein the above-defined non-linear betting scheme does not result in different desired expected payout percentages for the different wager amounts.
To increase player enjoyment and excitement, it is desirable to provide new and different mechanical devices which operate in conjunction with primary or secondary games of wagering gaming devices.